Architecture

There are many different types of architecture and your budget, type of website and time will influence the choice.

Architecture choice

Website Architecture can be extremely complex and depending on time, complexity and functionality may include many pages of documentation.

When starting a web project, one of the first documents Huyton Web Services will draw up is the Site Map (part of Information Organization/Gathering phase). This is a map of all the pages in the project showing how a visitor could get from one page to the next as a pathway or map. A Site Map is not an exact science, as a visitor can land on the site at any page, but it should show all pages in one form or another. This is created so all parties can agree on what the end of the project will look like and there is no ambiguity between anyone. Not all sections of a website may be covered in phase one of the project and the Site Map can document this with different sections like “Phase 2” or “TBD”.

Most architectural diagrams or reports are not needed as they simply add more complexity, time and questions

Depending on the size of the website a Site Map may be the only Architecture we need to create, although Huyton Web Services may create other types of architectural diagrams for you including:

Accessibility
Content Management
Navigation Design (based on the Site Map)
Hierarchy and Taxonomy
Responsive Design
Search Functionality
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Wireframes (part of the UX)
User Experience (UX)
User Flow

The above list are the more common Architecture types for a website, but there are many other types of Architecture that we may need for any online system including:

Analytics and Reporting Architecture
Client-Server Architecture
Data Architecture
Event-Driven Architecture
High Availability and Redundancy
Microservices Architecture
Scalability and Load Balancing
Security Architecture
Serverless Architecture

Most architectural diagrams or reports are not needed as they simply add more complexity, time and questions to a project but that is not to say they are considered, all architecture in the above lists is considered by Huyton Web during website creation, even though most of these are not documented.

For example, if you decide your website will need search functionality, Huyton Web will need to look at how a system will provide the search and show results to a visitor. As more content is added to the site how these pages are added to the results will need considering. In most cases a report on this is overcomplication of a project and will just eat into the budget, we all understand a visitor will see a page if they search for it, however, we can provide this much more context should you need it.

We need to understand how we save data and where it is at any time. If the website is will save user data more than simple product in basket or commenting on content we will need to add reports on this so as not to breach data protection for certain countries. In most cases, to document the architecture behind the site is not necessary and will take extra time and budget.

We at Huyton Web will take care of all the architecture for you, but you do have questions about the architecture, please contact us and we can talk through what you might need, even if you already have a website.

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We have put these pages together to explain some of the core concepts, how they relate to us and, more importantly, you, because over the years we've been asked questions quite frequently. If there is something you don't understand or would like clarity on please contact us and we'll do our best to explain.